Originally posted by majorsal
We all come to the show with such different points of view that they won’t be able to please everyone at any time, let alone all of the time. There might be overriding story themes or characters that we all like to varying degrees and those shared feelings give us a way to connect as fans and as people, but happiness can be so subjective and fickle...
That’s why if TPTB have an artistic vision, they need to stick with it (or go back to it! ), MGM/Sony & SciFi’s meddling be damned. (And yes, I do realize the financial ramifications of saying that… No support=no money=no production=no show…) But back to the vision thing - so what if some fans (maybe even me) drop out because we disagree with their vision? If the ‘product’ has quality stories, chemistry amongst the ensemble cast, and good visuals, that’s what should be important (to them). Sharing the story they want to share in the manner they want to. Not pleasing all of the fans. Not pleasing all of MGM/Sony bigwigs…
At least that’s my POV this morning….
Right now I’m reading Nancy Cartwright’s book “My Life As a 10-Year-Old Boy” ©2000 (Nancy = the voice of Bart Simpson). *grins* Not that that is earth-shattering news… But… what is interesting is the chapter that I read yesterday that dealt with the changing of the writers/producers/etc. on the show. By 2000 when she wrote the book, The Simpsons had already had 5 different sets of writers and about an equal number of showrunners… Imagine if that had been SG… I’m not sure we’d have had a fandom to come on-line to myself!
Here’s some of her comments (and remember this was 5 years ago after the show had already been on the air for 10…):
- “It has been fascinating to see the show change and grow, and these guys had a lot to do with it. The tone, the stories, the style of the various seasons pretty much rise and fall on the influence of the show runner.” Amen. After getting the SG DVD’s through S7 and reading things on here & watching S8 & S9… I can see rising and falling and how the changes affect SG…
- The first time there was turnover in their writing staff she said “there was genuine concern as to whether or not this was going to work.” (read: Oh yeah, believe it, the actors have concerns, but they’ll keep plugging away at it hoping the ship bow rises back up and we the fans won't be any wiser about it…)
- She also talked about how the writers had to strike a balance between the characters (not too many Bart stories, not too many Homer stories, etc.) so that no one character dominated the show. At that point they’d already done 250+ episodes. She asked a co-ex producer (Ron Hague) how they kept coming up with story ideas and he told her “There absolutely aren’t any more ideas.” But he followed up that comment by telling her they still managed to pull it off.
- The other difference was that Fox and Gracie Productions gave them a lot of leeway in doing things how they wanted. (read: no stifling of creativity there…)
I just thought I’d share because it was interesting, even though it was talking about an animated TV series, how many parallels there were in the production of that show w/SG. I just hope SG would weather the changes like the Simpsons did. But not having a Jim B orMatt G, or as supportive a network, I don’t know…
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